Don't cave to Euro censorship or backdoor demands, Uncle Sam warns US tech firms The head of America's consumer watchdog has issued a stark warning to some of the biggest names in the tech sphere – don't backdoor encryption or censor content at the behest of foreign governments, or there may be consequences. On Thursday, Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson published the letter, sent to Akamai, …
"Not only have Americans been censored and expelled from platforms for uttering opinions and beliefs that were not shared by a small Silicon Valley elite, the previous administration actively worked to encourage such censorship."
Putting aside who it's coming from I can completey agree with a policy of discouraging tech companies from letting one country set the censorship standard outside of their borders (e.g. when Australia demanded global censorship of videos on X). However, the quotes on censorship in this article seem to pertain to internal private decisions.
The danger there is falling into the trap of compelled speech; where a private individual or corporation is forced to host material it disagrees with. It's in the same ballpark as the 'support gay marriage' cake case.
Considering the US Cloud Act and the unconstitutional FISA already mass slurping of data globally … some rank hypocrisy here.
That being said … still waiting on Apple re-enabling ADP’ in the UK…. It’s still disabled.
* US protests about Palestinian Genocide are also not anti-Semitic and requiring ideological thought war against higher education. TBH with the recent history of Jews in Europe … you would have thought they would be a bit more sympathetic.
One "concern" is that, faced with conflicting legal instructions from EU and US, American social media companies might give up on the EU altogether.
That would leave Europe's population served only by homegrown social media, cut off from the likes of Meta and the site formerly known as Twitter.
However will we survive?
We've already seen what happened in the case of potentially-conflicting legal instructions from China and the US: TikTok decided it would rather give up on the US than hand over its money-making algorithm. And the US folded (or rather Trump did, since he was personally extending the sale deadline with dubious legality).
I suspect that if there are European pressures to regulate content, the social media companies will grumble and get on with it - it's too big a market to ignore. If, on the other hand, there's much further pressure on privacy - which would essentially make the current incarnation of social media uneconomic - they'll be whining to the US about the assault on their manifest destiny.
But I'm not really sure how much more life the present social media companies have. Meta has vast quantities of money which it is burning through with little obvious return while Facebook has pretty much become the latterday equivalent of Exchange and Mart. Twittex is now almost entirely irrelevant. And whatever is popular with the current generation of kids will be deeply unfashionable with the next.
And a tweet would be a “xit.” Granted, it’s a limited subset of words in Spanish in which letter “x” is pronounced “sh,” but I feel that it’s obvious enough for most to parse correctly.
I started calling that cesspool Xitter since day one of the name change. It’s good to know that others share that view.
Also, have any of you crazed Registristas/maths boffins here ever calculated the energy impact of millions of journalists and others having to append “the platform formerly known as Twitter” to every mention of X(itter?)
Just wondering.
As a personal example, I do home machining/additive manufacturing and, despite my annoyance at being forced to use that platform, a lot of the discussion does happen on Meta groups. My presence there is so apolitical that the algorithm just serves me a mix of ads for Chinese tat machines and 'uplifting' nonsense stories. Some really impressive stuff (as far as achieving a great deal with limited resources) has happened through what is effectively international collaboration.
It's not just swivel-eyed loons on opposite ends of the political discussion slinging nonsense at each other.
@Henry Hallan
"That would leave Europe's population served only by homegrown social media, cut off from the likes of Meta and the site formerly known as Twitter."
5 minutes and the politicians would be so scared of their populations revolting against EU membership and it would be reversed quickly.
I was reading the Whitehouse has made a tiktok account. The US was banning Tiktok and Trump had the legal authority to extend the cut off date for 90 days. Apparently (with questionable legality) Trump keeps extending the deadline and congress who should be forcing this have nothing to say from either side of the isle.
*Apologies to abend0c4, it seems you wrote about this an hour before me and I didnt see it --->
"I was reading the Whitehouse has made a tiktok account."
I can't see it lasting very long, currently the top 100+ comments (based on likes) against each of the videos they've posted are just memes and troll posts disparaging Trump, Vance, Karoline Leavitt or MAGA. There is nothing visible amongst the comments actually supporting the current occupant of the White House or any of his cronies.
"President Trump has put a swift end to the weaponization of the federal government against Americans and their freedoms"
Well that's somewhere between a staggering nothingburger of a statement and an outright lie. The foreign nations being asked under five-eyes to put efforts in to Americans of interest, and share their data back to the US "so we're not spying on our own people" have entered the chat, alongside the US's direct use of Pegasus against its own people "but only for special cases that might impact national security".
There's a reason politicians speak like an addendum to 1984, and it's because they don't traditionally venture in to waters where they don't want to stir up the silt. I understand that "the modern truth" is what you can make people believe, often what is shouted loudest. That said, get your own house in order before you start throwing stones, or shut up and go back in your corner.
And as to the UK politicians with less competence and understanding of technical matters than a soggy blancmange, sit down, you're embarrassing yourself (and us by extension) on a global scale.
>” The foreign nations being asked under five-eyes to put efforts in to Americans of interest, and share their data back to the US”
From the outset, I have suspected the UK action with respect to worldwide information disclosure from the likes of Apple was done after discussions with and the full backing of the US agencies; so the US agencies could maintain their “we don’t spy on US citizens” stance.
Transcribed from: The Kyle Kulinski Show, Secular Talk, https://youtu.be/LLhosKWrmQ8 - Monday 11th March, 2025.
Trump sued Anne Selzer for a poll he didn't like.
He sued CBS for how it edited a Kamala Harris interview.
He sued Simon and Schuster for a bob Woodward book because it quoted him and he didn't like the quote.
He threatened to delicense news outlets that criticize him.
He wants to punish flag burning with a year in jail.
He sued CNN for $475 million for calling his election denialism the big lie.
He sued Bill Maher for $5 million over a joke.
He says he supports opening up the Libel laws to sue journalist.
He called for jailing journalists who reported on the Supreme Court abortion ruling.
He wants to deport Pro Palestine protesters and now they're literally already doing that - this is it's not even an undocumented immigrant this is a permanent resident with the green card they're going to revoke the Green Card of somebody simply for exercising their free speech and criticizing a US-backed genocide.
He gag ordered the EPA from telling the truth on climate change.
He arrested and charged six journalists with felony rioting.
He didn't pardon Assange.
He didn't pardon Snowden.
He didn't pardon Daniel hail.
He wanted to invoke the Insurrection act to deploy US troops against George Floyd protesters.
He called to terminate all rules regulations and articles in the Constitution over his election loss.
...I don't give a flying fuck what is written on Twatter or Farcebook or ShitTok or any of these echo chambers so any "censorship" (read: we don't like the fact they won't publish hate speech and disinformation, and keep fact checking our stuff!) won't affect me.
However, if anyone seriously believes that the orange pedo has anyone else's interests at heart but his own in whatever nonsense he's spouting today, they should probably go and get their head checked and prefereably removed permanently.
RotW puts regs in place for anyone operating in RotW. Trump makes law to outlaw US companies following RotW regs. US companies caught between rock and hard place, start to falter in RotW marketplace. Trump rails against "any cause stopping US companies making more bucks" and drafts order to prosecute anyone or anything that prevents that. Trump prosecuted. Nothing changes. Bugger.
* Oh, if only.
Most large Corps, especially US based ones, are not under any direct threat of "censorship" or anything else from foreign powers. The local incorporated subsidiaries may well be, but definitely not the US parent company. They all operate the same way, with arms-length local subsidiaries for tax reasons mainly, but also so they can operate within the local laws of the land where those laws may conflict with the US law. Even more so in Europe since GDPR. And especially in China. The China model of corporate web operations is a prime example of how local laws on censorship don't affect the mothership and those companies clearly are happy to censor locally in China without it affect their business outside of China.
On the other hand, I do applaud the US outrage as on the face of it as it brings the dangers and hypocrisy into the wider public attention, especially the UKs OSA and the moves the EU are making, along with threats so many US States are imposing or planning to impose, even if the Administration are mostly using it as a distraction technique. (They can't seem to go a full week without exploding over some newly perceived "threat" to "the American Dream", it almost like they feed on the media response and need more and more to keep going while trying to shift attention away from their failings)
"The move is the latest step in the Trump administration's war against the regulation of disinformation online and the apparent need for giving governments the right to view online communications."
I am not sure how it regulates so called 'disinformation' aka not the official line. Maybe the stasi arrive to escort you to their nearest 'learning facility' where you will be re-educated?
I am very happy to hear the US calling out the previous admin and Europe. Even if it backfires on themselves that people increasingly demand their privacy we keep seeing repeats off what happens when it is violated.
>> "Right now, the disinformation is the official line "the election was stolen" etc."
> Which version? Hillary or Trump or some other?
(Oh, now CM has forgotten which one got into power and currently is in charge of the official line)
No dear, Trump is in the Whitehouse; don't you remember, you got all excited and ate the green jelly. Now, be a darling and take your lovely pills, we'll just close these curtains for you. Nap time in ten minutes.
@AC
"(Oh, now CM has forgotten which one got into power and currently is in charge of the official line)"
Trump won in 2016 which caused Hillary to make her claims. Trump called out the very unusual looking 2020 election by the opposition who are currently being criminally investigated for what we know was a false dossier with misuse of federal security services.
"No dear, Trump is in the Whitehouse; don't you remember, you got all excited and ate the green jelly. Now, be a darling and take your lovely pills, we'll just close these curtains for you. Nap time in ten minutes."
Sounds like you are talking to Biden. I am not Biden but that was funny
The country that has a meltdown if "a wardrobe malfunction" happens?
The country that has effectively banned all references to LGBTQ people in schools and other public institutions?
The country that has removed references to black and female achievements in NASA?
The country that doesn't want gay people in the military?
The county that places sanctions on Judges investigating war crimes?
These assholes wouldn't know free speech if it hit them with a 9mm in the ear.
Add also:
- The country that wants access to all of your social media post to check if you have "anti-american" opinions when entering.
- The country that fired a head statistician because the Clown in Chief didn't like the numbers
- The country thaf fired the Library of Congress member because the Clown in Chief didn't like her opinion about copyright
- The country that created FISA and Cloud Act to spy on foreigners, forcing the same companies to hand data about them without due process.
And...
Transcribed from: The Kyle Kulinski Show, Secular Talk, https://youtu.be/LLhosKWrmQ8 - Monday 11th March, 2025.
Trump sued Anne Selzer for a poll he didn't like.
He sued CBS for how it edited a Kamala Harris interview.
He sued Simon and Schuster for a bob Woodward book because it quoted him and he didn't like the quote.
He threatened to delicense news outlets that criticize him.
He wants to punish flag burning with a year in jail.
He sued CNN for $475 million for calling his election denialism the big lie.
He sued Bill Maher for $5 million over a joke.
He says he supports opening up the Libel laws to sue journalist.
He called for jailing journalists who reported on the Supreme Court abortion ruling.
He wants to deport Pro Palestine protesters and now they're literally already doing that - this is it's not even an undocumented immigrant this is a permanent resident with the green card they're going to revoke the Green Card of somebody simply for exercising their free speech and criticizing a US-backed genocide.
He gag ordered the EPA from telling the truth on climate change.
He arrested and charged six journalists with felony rioting.
He didn't pardon Assange.
He didn't pardon Snowden.
He didn't pardon Daniel hail.
He wanted to invoke the Insurrection act to deploy US troops against George Floyd protesters.
He called to terminate all rules regulations and articles in the Constitution over his election loss.
From the people who brought you NSO/Pegasus and Paragon/Graphite.................
...............both designed SPECIFICALLY to make E2EE irrelevant (because snoops see everything on end points IN PLAIN)...........
Hypocrisy.......Misdirection.............more of the same from governments wanting to face both ways at the same time!
